GCap hit by audience decline

GCap Media was among the big losers in the latest Rajar figures, with declining audiences for its indie music network Xfm, golden oldie stable Gold and flagship national station Classic FM.

The Gold network, which was created out of the merger of Capital Gold and Classic Gold last summer, lost 26% of its audience on the previous quarter and 46% over the year, down to 913,000 listeners nationwide, according to Rajar figures for the first quarter of 2008 published today.

Audiences for Classic FM and many of GCap's 42-strong One Network of regional stations were also down, while Capital was pipped into fourth place in London in terms of audience by Bauer's Kiss.

There was better news for GCap at urban music station Choice, which added listeners in London and grew its total UK audience to 695,000, up 12% on the previous quarter and 16% year on year.

But the total audience for GCap's four-strong Xfm network of stations fell 11% year on year to 1.03 million, including a 24% fall in Scotland and a slump of 40% at its London station.

Global Radio, which will soon complete its £375m takeover of GCap, saw rises at both its Heart and Galaxy networks across the UK.

Heart was up 1.5% on the previous quarter and 10% year on year to 3.4 million, while dance network Galaxy added 3% both quarter on quarter and year on year to 2.6 million.

But the audience for Bauer's Kerrang! slipped back a little on the previous quarter to 1.3 million listeners, down 6% on the same period in 2007.

All of GMG Radio's Smooth Radio stations increased their audience in the first quarter of this year, with a total weekly reach of 2.38 million listeners.

Overall, GMG Radio - which is part of the Guardian Media Group, which publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk - has a total audience of 4.8 million listeners a week.

In Scotland, UTV's Talk 107 in Edinburgh, which saw three DJs depart in the space of a week in March, lost 23% of its audience year on year, taking it to just 33,000 listeners.

There were also double digit year-on-year declines in audience for Bauer's Radio Clyde (down 11% to 616,000); Bauer's Forth2 in Edinburgh (down 12.6% to 90,000); and Kingdom FM in Fife, which lost 28% of its audience, down to 56,000.

GMG Radio's Smooth Radio in Glasgow recorded a double-digit increase, up 14.6% across the year to 212,000.

Among the bigger BBC regional stations, BBC Radio Manchester's audience was marginally up on the previous year to 236,000 listeners but saw its share of the audience fall from 5% to 3.9%.

BBC WM in Birmingham and the Black Country had 290,000 listeners, up 40,000 on the previous quarter but down from 338,000 the previous year. Its share of the market was also down year on year, from 6.9% to 5.6%.

BBC Radio Merseyside had an audience of 343,000, more than 30,000 on the previous quarter but down 22,000 year on year. Its share was up across the 12 months, from 15% to 16.4%.

BBC Radio Scotland, which will relaunch with a new schedule next week, increased its share from 8.9% in 2007 to 9.6%, with an average weekly reach of 1 million listeners.

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